Connacht Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Part II

former legend wrote: »

Ok I'm going to post this and hope no one takes offence.

Craig Clarke arrived over to Connacht last year and I think it's fair to say that a few eyebrows were raised at Connacht signing a Super Rugby -winning captain. A major coup but a few months later, he was forced to retire. Did his repeated concussion only begin here?

Heenan was a very bright prospect and again, Connacht would not have seemed the most obvious destination. Now he's looking at his second major spell on the sidelines since his arrival on a single injury.

Now Mils Muliaina is here, a player of undoubted class but questionable fitness.

Is it possible that this is a policy at Connacht, to go hunting for quality players who maybe wouldn't normally consider Connacht but whose options are limited by injury problems?

I don't mean to be condescending but this injury to Heenan is a huge setback and it got me thinking.

I honestly don't think there's much in it.

There are clearly still questions around Craig Clarke's retirement but if you look into concussions it's easy to see how a player would play through multiple concussions and never have them "reported" properly. It's still a problem rugby is only starting to deal with. I doubt the branches medical staff realised there was a serious problem there until Clarke suffered serious concussion symptoms at Connacht. Perhaps the due diligence could have been better but I also think that there'll have been very little or no record of those concussions so the only source of the information would have been Clarke admitting them himself. We're talking about a 30 year old who knew it was too late make the All Backs team and headed to Europe for a new challenge with a three year €300k salary.

Muliana is clearly a calculated risk around a major publicity stunt. I still won't be happy with it unless he gets out on the pitch fit and playing good rugby but I can see why they went for it.

As was pointed out above Heenan left NZ to get first team rugby. We pushed him very hard last season and either (1) brought him back too early or (2) he'd already destabilised his shoulder sufficiently that it would have needed surgery anyway. Either way I think we mismanaged his welfare at least once along the way.

As for Aki, hopefully he gets out of the ITM Cup in one piece.

That's a ridiculous overstatement. Especially with the talent Ireland have coming through in both those positions.

former legend wrote: »

Well I admire your optimism anyway! I've seen practically nothing of Aki but the success rate of SH imports across all provinces is patchy so let's hope he pans out.

If the same Bundee Aki turns up at Connacht as I've seen playing for the Chiefs there's no worry there. He has pace, power, the ability to offload, a big presence in defence and he's only 24. If someone in NZ doesn't see them self as an All Black in the near future the salary cap really does make a trip to Europe seem attractive.